| Which
Are the Whoopers?
Try Identifying Cranes from an Airplane
 How
many whoopers? Counting whooping cranes is not easy! "I sometimes
think that every white pelican and great and snowy egret for miles
around flies to Aransas every week just to get counted," says
Tom Stehn. "Throw in the occasional piece of white styrofoam
trash washed up into the marsh along with white refuge boundary
signs, and our eyes have much to sort through to find all the whooping
cranes."
Climb
into Tom's airplane and see for yourself! Click
on the photo for an example of what Tom sees from the plane.
On aerial surveys, Tom sees many white bird "conventions."
He says the white birds seem to gather at sites of food concentrations,
often where water levels recede or where minnows are trapped in
drying ponds.
- How
many whoopers can you find in Tom's aerial photo?
- Observe
and try to count them, then see
Tom's answer.
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